Disturbing Works of Contemporaries

Katherine Anne Porter (1894-1980) & Daphne du Maurier (1907-1989) both wrote highly unsettling works. While du Maurier's work is quite well known both in their literary form & cinematic adaptations by Hitchcock (Rebecca, The Birds & Jamaica Inn) & others (My Cousin Rachel, The Scapegoat), Porter's work is not so well known.

Daphne du Maurier, in addition to many novels, wrote gripping short stories, now  collected in 5 volumes. "No Motive" which can also be classed as a first class detective story, has a devastating denouement, which leaves the reader gasping, as it will not conveyed to the man who ordered the investigation. A case of a suicide, which can only be ascribed to prenatal depression, is investigated by a detective called Black, who believes, like Christie's Poirot that finding out the truth through other peoples' lies is always stimulating.

Katherine Anne Porter, wrote a single novel, "Ship of Fools", which was filmed by Stanley Kramer in 1965 with a multi-star cast headed by Vivien Leigh. But Porter was more renowned through her shorter fiction. All of them are unsettling but "He" is the most horrifying story of a mother exploiting her own simple minded son & finally when he has to be institutionalised for good. shedding crocodile tears.